


Protesting in Your Paper Crown

by BlueDarknessIceHeart



Series: Fictober 2019 [3]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Angst and Feels, Arguing, Exo resets (mentioned), Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Mental Instability, Multi, Near Death, Near Death Experiences, Non canon supers, Previous Relationship, Shadowkeep spoilers, Threats, Trauma, Violence, Zavala gets punched, anger issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-04
Updated: 2019-10-04
Packaged: 2020-11-23 05:01:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20886524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueDarknessIceHeart/pseuds/BlueDarknessIceHeart
Summary: Fictober Prompt 3: "Now? Now you listen to me?"“You can’t send her back! She almost died the last time you sent us to the Hellmouth and you’d watch it happen again!”





	Protesting in Your Paper Crown

**Author's Note:**

> So this could count as part of my Fireteam:Aeterno series as well, but the prompt from fictober spawned the idea so I'm putting it there.

Alsenna Moreno had always been a disaster walking, a pin too easy to pull, emotions catching between her teeth and on the drag of her knuckles. She towered above Ikora, dark blue hair a halo around her face with the electricity rolling off of her in waves. 

“You can’t send her back! She almost died the last time you sent us to the Hellmouth and you’d watch it happen again!” 

White eyes were wide, wet with tears she refused to shed, her knuckles digging a hole into the table top. She wasn’t going to spare tears for Rhaina Sirae again, not like this.

She was never going to be able to get the image of her fireteam leader, her _lover_ at the time, doubled over wreathed in violet and wailing in agony out of her mind. She was never going to be able to forget how it felt, the freezing pulse of energy that swarmed out of the warlock with no control, the rapid fire degeneration and regeneration of Rhaina’s too cold body in her arms. The sound of Ghost’s panic, rapid whirling and clicking of his shell as he looped around Rhaina’s head, the sickly mesh of the Hellmouth’s green against the violet leaking from her eyes, her nose, her mouth. 

“Surely Rhaina has managed to develop some sort of control-” 

Ikora was too calm, too steady, too unfazed for her liking. Her hand moved on its own, lifting from the hole she’d made and slamming back down palm first, lightning crackling across the metal. 

“You’ve kept her in that med bay for months! You’ve run test upon test, read every field report, and you should know she can’t control it, Ikora!” Her breathing was too quick, upper lip curled to show canines even as she kept trying to make her point. “You know damn well she loves Eris to no end, the same with Asher. You saw the aftermath of Brakion, Ikora, do not stand there and tell me you think she can go back down there now and not come completely undone!” 

She’d sent Kaylen, the new Kaylen that didn’t remember anything that happened on the Tangled Shore in the Dreaming City, the new version that had gaps in her memory of her friend coiling too tight only to come back snapped and torn and begging, screaming, for Alsenna to just hit her harder when they took it to the ring. The reset Kaylen that had her leader buried in books and empty bottles to try and keep everything in her head quiet. Alsenna had asked the one of them so recently scrubbed free of her trauma to go first. 

“Do you read anything we send you? There are specters - _nightmares_ \- everything dead and rotten dragged back up to haunt us. They talk, Ikora, they scream for help and I will not put her in that, not when it’ll make her more vulnerable. If you want an unstable Awoken with power go get the one that shot Kaylen on sight in the Dreaming City.” She dragged her hand back slowly, scoring the table further as she drew herself upright. 

Alsenna felt the temperature shift, white eyes sliding to meet blue tinged violet at her shoulder. 

“Acantha would be a powerful ally, but she refuses to partner with the faction that ordered her companions death, even passively.” Rhaina’s voice was steady if not frigid. 

She knew she was a liability, in all truth. She knew she could not only kill herself but her team if the power under her skin swelled too much, lashed out further than she could hope to control at all. 

The warlock’s voice softened, gaze falling to the table. “I doubt she would see anything pleasant either. You must remember she died in the attack on the Dreadnaught, she witnessed what we _did-_” 

“Uldren Sov got what he deserved and that is not the current argument.” 

Alsenna’s arms folded across her chest, watched carefully as the violet ringing Rhaina’s pupils moved out, water from a broken vase flooding the blue of her iris. 

“Moreno, you’re well aware of the duties you all have as Guardians.” 

The titan’s shoulders drew tight, fingers curling into a fit in the bend of her arm. 

“I don’t think you have any right to talk about duty, _Commander._” 

Her tone was acidic, practically spitting his title back at him. 

“You were made well aware that Guardians may be called upon to give their life a final time-” 

Alsenna should’ve had more control, she knew that, but she couldn’t keep herself from lunging forwards. She couldn’t stop the swing of her fist into Zavala’s jaw, hand wreathed in arc energy. 

“You made her sicker with Osiris, you have run her ragged from near deaths to experiments, you have done _everything_ to her except turn her into a corpse for good. You’re not going to kill her and forget her like everyone else, do you understand me?” 

She was shaking, arc crackling off of her in waves, spitting sparks in the aftermath. 

“You may have a point-” 

“Now? Now you listen to me!?” Alsenna looked between Zavala and Ikora, eyes wide, voice cracking. “Is it because you finally get it or are you scared I’ll bring what’s left of this tower to the ground?” 

Rhaina’s hands cupped tear stained cheeks, her touch far beyond freezing compared to the warmth of Alsenna. “Look, you giant, I think you made your point.” 

Alsenna jerked her head back, what sounded like a growl ripping itself past her clenched teeth. Heavy footsteps carried the arc covered titan away from them, out of the room and far enough away for Rhaina to turn her attention to Ikora herself. 

“You are well beyond aware how little it takes to trigger what amounts to unbridled entropy. You know in great detail how far I’ve been searching to counter Asher’s sickness and my own, you know I could hear Riven while sitting in orbit and you would dare to place me in the path of something capable of wielding the past while dragging me from my attempt to save not only my lover but myself? Do you think of us as anything more than weapons to be wielded and discarded when we eventually break?” 

Violet curled around her fingers, her wrists, looped around her neck and covered the blue of her eyes entirely. She had less and less control as days passed, and now was no exception. She’d lay down her life for Eris, that much was true, but it would never again be on a Vanguard order.

“I am not a pawn to be ordered around, Ikora Rey. I suggest you fully consider just who you are trying to choke with the leash of command before you fail at the attempt.”

**Author's Note:**

> [Come say Hi on tumblr!](https://bluedarknesswriteheart.tumblr.com/)   



End file.
